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TTMA launches industry-wide safety effort

The Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association annually recognizes the safest plants in the industry, but this year TTMA has taken another step to promote workplace safety. Outgoing TTMA Chairman of the Board Rick Mullininx announced the creation of the new Safety Committee during the recent 76th TTMA Annual Convention.

“We want all of our employees to go home at the end of the day in the same condition as they arrived for work,” Mullininx said.

The TTMA Safety Committee Mission Statement:

Our Mission is to protect our people, our assets and the environment, though prevention of losses, damages and injuries to our employees and equipment.

The Safety Committee’s first two years will be led by Chairman David Ritchie of Great Dane Trailers and Vice Chairman Karen Czor of Heil/Polar Tank Trailers. Additional details will be coming very soon to the TTMA membership, the organization said.

This year’s TTMA Plant Safety Contest, a competition among all trailer manufacturers who are members of the organization, again honored those facilities with the leading plant safety data on their annual OSHA 300A Summary Form. The awards are given in two categories: Tank and General Trailer Manufacturers. Each category is divided into three classes determined by plant size.

Category A Winners (over 750,000 man-hours)

• Great Dane Trailers; Statesboro, GA

• Heil Trailer International; Juarez, Mexico

Category B Winners (300,000 to 750,000 man-hours)

• Fontaine Trailer Company; Haleyville, AL

• Polar Tank Trailer; Holdingford, MN

Category C Winners (under 300,000 man-hours)

• Stoughton Trailers LLC; Stoughton, WI

• Stephens Pneumatics Inc.; Haslet, TX

Most Improved Trailer Plant for 2017

• Jarco; Salem, IL

Most Improved Tank Plant for 2017

• Kalyn Siebert; Gatesville, TX

“We are gratified to have received a record four TTMA Plant Safety Awards for our EnTrans brands,” said Doug Chapple, CEO of EnTrans International. “Safety is our No. 1 priority at EnTrans. We remain committed to building manufacturing facilities and implementing processes that promote the greatest levels of safety for our valued employees.”

This is the first time the Great Dane’s Statesboro facility has received this award, but Great Dane boasts a total of 38 awards in various categories since the TTMA Plant Safety Contest began in 1971.

“We have invested considerable capital and resources to define safety as an essential priority, embed it into our culture and achieve performance excellence throughout the organization. Safety is a core value at Great Dane, and it is the way we must do business,” said Dean Engelage, president of Great Dane. “By the end of 2017, Statesboro had an incredible 70% improvement on their recordable injury rate (RIR). The key to this significant progression has been a top-down approach that reaches and employs first-line supervisors. Employees perform safely when leaders actively and consistently demonstrate through decisions and actions that safety is a priority.”